Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	nature_n	2,965	5	5.9132	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57956	A discourse of the use of reason in matters of religion shewing that Christianity contains nothing repugnant to right reason, against enthusiasts and deists / written in Latin by the Reverend Dr. Rust ; and translated into English, with annotations upon it by Hen. Hallywell.	Rust, George, d. 1670.; Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?	1683 (1683)	Wing R2361; ESTC R25530	47,282	92

contrary to Right Reason could Men ever be forced to believe it For such is the Constitution of a Rational Soul and such are the Essential Impresses of its Intellectual Nature that no Man can believe what he pleases but is fatally bound up to such Things as are agreeable to those Principles of which his Rational Nature is compounded And if it were in the Power of any Man to believe any thing though never so contradictory and repugnant to the Natural Sentiments and Impressions of his own Mind he might then yield as firm an Assent to Falshood as Truth and repute all the Contradictions and Absurdities in the World to be infallible Oracles And as he cannot arbitrariously fix his Mind to the Reception of a Falshood so neither of that which is irrational for that which is Repugnant to Right Reason is certainly false and all the Difference between them lies only in the Number of Syllables Pag. 18. Right Reason and Divine Wisdom give the same Judgment of things The Foundation of all Knowledge whether Divine or Humane lies in the Apprehension of the Idea's Natures and mutual Respects and Relations of things Now these not being Arbitratious but setled Eternally fixt and Immutable it clearly follows that Right Reason and Divine Wisdom give the same Judgment of Things Forasmuch as not only Right Reason is a Participation of the Divine Understanding but likewise that it is no more in the Power of God to change or alter the Idea's Respects and References of Things then it is in his Power to die or destroy his own Being Hence a Triangle with its three Angles equal to two Right ones and all Idea's with their Immutable Respects and Habitudes appear the same in Humane Understanding as they are Represented and Exhibited in the Divine Intellect because our Understanding is an Abstract or Copy of the Divine Understanding as likewise because the contrary would undermine and destroy the very Foundation of all Knowledge in the World Therefore it was truly asserted by Tully Est igitur quoniam nihil est Ratione melius eáque in homine in Deo prima homini cum Deo Rationis Societas Inter quos autem Ratio inter eosdem etiam Recta Ratio communis est Nor do we by this in a Stoical Arrogance make Man equal with God as some may fondly imagine For the Divine Intellect as our learned Author speaks doth intimately penetrate and behold at one view these Affections with the Idea's of the things themselves and discerns their Order and Reciprocations And this is properly called fixed and Stable Reason whereas Humane Understanding explicates and unfolds things successively and in order and this is Reason in succession or flowing and moveable Reason Pag. 41. As to other Things we ought to yield an Implicit Faith to Divine Revelation c. Christian Religion sufficiently obtains its end in that all those things which pertain to Life and Godliness to the Renovation of Mens Minds into the faultless Image of our Lord Jesus are plain and intelligible even to the meanest Capacity but in such things as are of a more Abstruse Profound and Speculative Nature it is sufficient to have an Implicit Faith i. e. to believe that the sense of all those Things that are delivered and consigned by Divine Testimony though they transcend my Capacity whatever it is which was intended by God is true For he that does not so calls God's Truth in Question But to believe this or that to be the true sense of them or to believe the Modes of such and such Doctrines which are not plainly revealed in the Holy Scriptures are thus to be explicated and all other Explications of them utterly false is not necessary either to Faith or Salvation For if God would have had under Pain of Damnation those Doctrines which are not so plainly laid down as that all should have the same Conceptions of them to be equally believed by all in this Particular and Determinate sense it could not consist with his Wisdom to deliver them in obscure Terms nor with his Justice to require of Men to know certainly the meaning of those Words which he himself has not revealed Pag. 43. That he may be a Pattern and Example to us For as Lactantius speaks excellently well Quomodo poterit amputari excusatio c. i. e. How can all excuse be taken away unless he that teacheth does the same things that he teacheth and conducts and lends his helping hand to him that follows For if he should be subject to no Passion a Man might thus reply upon his Teacher I would not sin but I am overcome being clothed with frail and weak Flesh This is it which is angry which covets which grieves which fears to die Therefore I am led unwillingly and I sin not because I would but because I am forced I am sensible likewise that I sin but the necessity of Humane Frailty compels which I cannot withstand What shall this Teacher of Righteousness answer to these Things How will he refute or convince that Man who lays the blame of his sins upon his Flesh unless he himself be likewise clothed with Flesh and Blood that so he may shew that Flesh it self is likewise capable of the Exercise of Virtue Ibid. That be should be conceived by the Power of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of a Virgin without the concurrence of Man is an excellent Provision for a higher esteem and Valuation of his Person That Christ should be Born of a Virgin without the Concurrence of Man could not be looked upon as Incredible by the Pagan World who scarce ever had any famous Hero among them but they presently found out some God for his Father And Plutarch in the Life of Numa relates That the Egyptians supposed it probable enough that the Spirit of the Gods has given Original of Generation to Women and begotten fruit of their Bodies And Lactantius argues the Reasonableness of the Nativity of Jesus of the Virgin Mary from what was commonly believed among the Heathens concerning other Creatures Quod si Animalia quoedam Vento Aurâ concipere solere omnibus notum est cur quisquam mirum putet cùm Spiritu Dei cui est facile quicquid velit gravatam esse Virginem dicimus The belief of which when facilitated will appear an excellent Provision for a higher esteem and valuation of the Person of our Saviour Therefore perhaps it was not only a drunken humour in Alexander when he would be thought the Son of Jupiter Hammon but to make himself appear more August and Venerable by the Reputation of being the Son of a God To this purpose it is related by Huetius that among the Turks there are certain Boys which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believed of the common People to be Born of Virgins and in great esteem as supposed to do strange things In the Turkish Language they are called Nephes-Ogli i. e. the

proper light But we insist further That witness which the Spirit bears to it self is it a strong and obstinate Persuasion or an Ecstatical Joy or a kind of Zeal and Fervor of Mind or Lastly a clear and savoury Persuasion of the Dignity and Excellency of those things that are revealed If this last it is very consentaneous and agreeable to what we have already spoken But as for the other particulars it is very well known what an Innumerable company of Men there have been who upon such like grounds have very pertinaciously affirmed themselves to be compounded o●… Glass or Butter to be Dogs Cats Kings Emperors Popes the Paraclete the Messiah the last and greatest Prophet the Judge of Qu●…ck and Dead nay even God himself And we find most of these to have been actuated with an Excess of Joy and transported with a seemingly Divine Fervor All which Effects are so far from the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit that they are no better then Frenzies and Symptoms of Melancholy and derive their Original from no higher Principle then the undue Fermentation of the Blood and Spirits and chiefly from that Melancholy which above all other disposes the Minds of Men to fancy Divine Influxes and Illuminations For this as Aristotle affirms is wont to produce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore to be too easie and credulous in believing an obstinate Persuasion or strong Imagination whether there be a mixture of exultancy or zeal with it would argue a great want of Caution and Circumspection But we are to note especially where our Internal Sense is so obnoxious to Error That the Suffrages of other Faculties are first to be obtained upon whose refusal it behooves us at least to suspend our Assent But that we may not seem to derogate from the Holy Spirit we may ●…itly here suggest what mere Nothings we are and how little it is we can do without his help so that there is no Man whatever that can come to Christ without the supervenient Assistance of Divine Grace And as this is clearly attested in the Sacred Scripture so it is no less Consentaneous to Reason forasmuch as this is a most certain Truth that 't is a great Vanity to dispute against Sense and Experience And though some one as 't is reported of Zeno should go about to prove there is no such thing as Motion and should endeavour by subtilty of Argumentation to banish Quantity Matter and Time out of the Nature of Things yet he could never induce any sober Person wholly to distrust his Eyes and Hands By the same Reason since every Man finds his Senses highly gratified with that Pleasure flowing from External and Mundane Objects and yet not to be alike affected with things of a higher and nobler Nature how much resistence soever he may make by Virtue of the Counsels of severer Reason and strive to alienate his Mind from those as things less comporting with the Dignity of his Nature yet he will be no more able to reclaim himself then the Arguments of Zeno were able to move Diogenes Moreover so long as that brisk and lively rellish of sensual Pleasures draws away the Mind it will not be at leisure to attend to the so●…t Whispers of that gentle Monitor within Or perhaps it will easily slop its mouth or at least allure it to its own side For we are led by Sense either External or Internal not by dry and insipid Reason which gives much what the same Account of the Delights of a Spiritual life as a blind Man would do of colours And doubtless it would be but lost labour to teach a blind Man how pleasant a thing it is to behold the Sun and to enjoy the benefit of the Light and recreate himself with the Variety of Objects It is only the Eye that is sufficient to make such a Demonstration of these things as may affect the Mind You can never persuade a Man that is a perfect Slave to his Pleasures that there is any greater Delight and Satisfaction in Understanding the Reason of a Mathematical Demonstration then there is in Wine or the Caresses of a Mistress For if they were not bashful in declaring the Sentiments of their own Minds it would soon appear that the Reason of all Mankind is subjugated to the Imperious Dictates of present sense And unless God so affect our Minds as that on the one hand they may find some allay uneasiness in these Terrestrial Pleasures and on the other give them some Prelibations of the sweetness of things Celestial it can hardly be that we should either be weaned from those or very much desirous of these I add moreover that to render our selves obedient to the will of our hea●…enly Father is the only plain and easie way to the attaining a true Knowledge and Vital Sense of Divine Revelations For heavenly things are not otherwise to be known but by such an in ward rellish and affecting light as Divine Grace usually imparts to defecate humble Minds And further to admonish them that are going astray to illuminate the Eyes of the Mind to strengthen the Faith and to fix and impress the Arguments of Godliness upon the Soul which otherwise would be driven away with the least Wind of a Temptation these and such like things we owe to the Be●…ign Influence of the Holy Spirit All which we readily acknowledge to descend from Heaven by that Congruity they retain with that Divine Principle the only remain of God in us But if we discharge this Criterium of Truth and subject our Reason to the Conduct and Guidance of prevailing Phansis we must bid adieu to all Religion but that which under pretence of Divine Insp●…ration is nothing but the Result of 〈◊〉 and the feculent steams of the Blood Thus all Religions will be alike For by what Argument shall the Excellency of Christianity appear above 〈◊〉 or Gentilism when the use of Reason is laid aside But that we may not spend time in Ambiguity of Words we must know T●…at nothing is perceived by us but the Operations 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 and there●…re the Spirit as 't is a Principle of Knowledge in us is either Internal Sense or Reason for these are the only Faculties unless we will add Natural Instinct capable of being inlightned with the Beams of Divine Light To return therefore from whence we have digressed since our Internal Sense is so slippery and fallacious that Man that shall hearken to its Testimony against the Voice of all his other Faculties must be a Person of a very Imprudent and Temerarious Belief But you will say We grant indeed that it appears from this Argument that nothing can be believed without Reason but it does not follow fro●… hence that the thing to be believed is not contrary to Reason because we ought to credit a Divine Attestation though the matter attested be never so much Contrary to Reason For it may happen that Humane Understanding may thenErr when

Sons of Soul However these Things be yet this is certain that among all Nations those Persons have been always had in the greatest esteem and Veneration who have been taken to be the immediate Offspring of God And this was it which put Pilate into such a great Fear when the Jews told him that our Saviour asserted himself to be the Son of God Joh. 19. 8. imagining according to the Opinion of the Gentiles that he might be the Son of Jupiter or Apollo or some other of their Deities and consequently that he ought rather to be reverenced then given up to be Crucified Ibid. Adds the greater Majesty to what he should deliver From hence it was that most of the Legislators among the Heathen that they might obtain the greater Credit and Veneration to their Laws were wont to tell the People they received them from some God or other As Mynias persuaded the Egyptians that he was taught his Laws by Mercury Minos intituled his to Ju piter and Zamolxis among the Getes to the Goddess Vesta Now albeit these were but Fictions yet from the Dictates of common Reason they all concluded thus much that there was no Law so binding or that carried greater Majesty and Authority then that which had Divinity stamped upon it Ibid. Nor could God signifie his will more agreeable to the Nature of Man Admirably to 〈◊〉 Purpose the forecited Lactantius discourses where shewing how highly Reasonable it was that Christ should take upon him our Flesh he adds Si verò sit Immortalis exemplum proponere homini nullo modo potest i. e. If he had been wholly Immortal he could not have offered himself as an Example to Mankind for some grave Person would be very apt thus to bespeak him you indeed do not sin because you are free from this Body you covet not because an Immortal Being wants nothing But I have need of many Things to maintain this life of mine You are not afraid of Death because it can have no Dominion over you You despise Pain because you are Impassible But I poor Mortal have reason to fear both because they bring upon me such grievous Torments as weak and infirm Flesh is not able to endure Therefore he that is a Teacher of 〈◊〉 ought to take away this excuse from men 〈◊〉 none may ascribe his sins rather to Necessity then his ownfault And that he may be every way compleat nothing ought to be objected against him by him that is to be taught As if any one should say you command Impossibilities he may readily answer Behold I do the same things I am clothed with Flesh whose Property is to sin yet I bear about a Mortal Body without sin I cannot for Righteousness sake either suffer Pain or Death because I am frail Behold Pain and Death hath Power on me and I overcome those things which thou fearest that I may make thee a Conqueror over Pain and Death I go first through those things which thou pretendest thou canst not bear if thou canst not follow me in what I command yet surely thou mayst follow me going before thee Thus all manner of excuse is taken away and every Man must confess that 't is his own fault that he is Vitious in neglecting to follow not only the Teacher of all Virtue but the Guide and Conductor to it And if any shall Object with that Impious Epicurean and ask Why could not God appear and at once take away all wickedness and sin out of the Soul and plant Virtue there To this Origen replies 1. That it may well be doubted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether such a thing be naturally possible or not 2. Supposing it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where will be the Liberty of our will and where that laudable Assent to the Truth and Aversation from Lies and Falshood For if we take away Liberty and Spontaneity we destroy the very Essence of Virtue So that no Course could have been taken more agreeable and suitable to the Nature of Man then what is made choice of in the Christian Religion Ibid. God cannot appear to us but under some corporeal Veil The Essences of all Things and so of Spirits are invisible and nothing can be the Object of our Senses but under some Corporeal Modification therefore the Evangelical Oeconomy requiring not only that the Person who should come from God to instruct the World should be intimately and Hypostatically united with the Divine Nature to conciliate the Greater Majesty to what he should deliver but likewise that he should appear to Men in some visible form and shape Divine Wisdom thought nothing a more sitting Mansion or Covering then a humane Body partly because an Angelical Body had been impassible and then that we might not lose that Natural encouragement and Provocation to Virtue flowing from the Example of one made after our own likeness who by those many endearing Circumstances he might make use of in the Flesh would more Powerfully captivate and attract Humane Souls to the Love and Obedience of him And therefore Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians does justly condemn some Hereticks in his Time who said that our Saviour Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was only a putative Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he did not take unto himself a true and real Body Pag. 44. Who spake very doubtfully of it When Socrates had brought as good Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul as he could yet Simmias thought he had Reason to say that to know any thing clearly of it in this life was either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Impossible or a thing extremely difficult But says he a Man must choose the best Reasons he can find which are least liable to Exception and he must venture to embark himself in these and Sail by them through this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. unless he can be so happy as to be carried safer with less danger in a surer stedfast Chariot of some Divine Word i. e. Revelation which is not only a clear acknowledgment that meer natural Reason is at a loss but a kind of Vaticination of an indubitable certainty and perfect security of Immortal life to be expected from some Divine Revelation And accordingly is now put out of all doubt by our Lord and Saviour who has brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Nor could that excellent Philosopher Cicero speak with greater Confidence for when he had weighed all things on both Parts he knew not what to say but this Harum igitur Sententiarum qu●… vera sit Deus aliquis viderit i. e. Which of these Opinions is true God only knows Pag. 46. Since God cannot execute this Solemn Judgment but under a visible shape That our Lord Jesus should appear at the End of the World in some visible shape and form and in that pass a Final doom upon all Refractory and Impenitent Sinners seems highly